Comment:

It came as no surprise to fans of the Tragically Hip when frontman Gord Downie syphoned off his surfeit of creative fuel into a solo career, and even less of a surprise that the mercurial poet would follow his eccentricities into intimate lo-fi realms, favouring country and jazz stylings over the Hip's stadium-sized rock. Debut [i]Coke Machine Glow[/i] (also the title of his first collection of prose and poetry) arrived in 2001, a loosely gathered and free-flowing set of tunes, the best of which include "Chancellor" and "Vancouver Divorce." The accessible exuberance of "Pascal's Submarine," with its jolly bar-room piano, set the tone for follow-up [i]Battle of the Nudes[/i] (2003), while [i]The Grand Bounce[/i] reclaimed some Hip-like rock with "The Dance and Its Disappearance" and explored widescreen vistas with "The East Wind."